Hemantha Devapriya, a local boy from Etul Kotte first attended Christian College, a school with a rich history and well over 100 years old. He played under 13 cricket for his school, there was a tournament where 10-15 schools participated and in that tournament in the final against Royal he got a fine hundred. Due to this sparkling knock he was in big demand amongst the prestigious schools such as Ananda, Nalanda and Royal. The then principal of Nalanda Sugunadasa Atukorala got to know about this young talented and pleasant boy and approached his father (an accountant at the Dehiwela Municipal Council) who initially did not like the idea but eventually agreed that the son should get involved in cricket.
Hemantha joined Nalanda and his success story began from thereon. How he got connected to the famous cricket coach Nelson Mendis was during his second year, playing for the Nalanda 1st eleven, (Hemantha also was quick to mention that Susantha Karunaratne, a good schoolboy cricketer in his own right played alongside with him.) During this period Nelson Mendis, had rejoined Nalanda in 1976. N.M. was the prefect of games then at Nalanda. Hemantha states that N.M. was a strict disciplinarian and a wonderful motivator, he encouraged his style of play, knew his strengths and weaknesses. Hemantha by nature was an attacking bat, who has never been coached technically but N.M. never altered Hemantha’s approach towards his batting. Mendis gave targets to achieve and he used to follow up diligently stated Hemantha. A typical example was during an Ananda-Nalanda 50-over match in 1978 N.M came to Hemantha and asked what his contribution would be in that particular match. Hemantha in turn said he would have five victims which was a promise, true to his word he stayed up to the fast bowlers and those days strangely enough 2 wides were allowed so when they bowled a wide they used to drag their back foot and he could stump them quite easily and as a result bagged five victims. Adel Hashim was one of his victims who got so confused by Hemantha’s lightning quick stumping, that he asked whether he got bowled or stumped recalls Hemantha.
Hemantha goes on to say that N.M knew how to squeeze the best out of the players. He was never late for his duties or for practice. He always insisted that they should trust their own talent and to believe in one’s self. He also encouraged them to dress smart and he knew how to get the right combination for the team. Hemantha also stated that NM motivated him by trusting his talent?
And in spite of being strict on the attire of what his charges dressed he had a soft corner for Hemantha because in his younger days he grew his hair and also had a tiger tooth around his neck which his grand father had given him as a good luck charm. The point which Hemantha is driving at is N.M checked the background and the behaviour of the boy before he meted out his punishment. N.M. did not demand respect but he commanded respect notes Hemantha.
He was brought up by different coaches at u 13 and u 15 levels and as a result he had his own style of play. Late Gerry Gooneratne, the senior coach at Nalanda did not disturb these traits of his players and never tried to change the rhythm or to do major adjustments to a batsmen’s style, he discouraged batters playing against swing and spin. Hemantha also stressed the fact that Gerry Gooneratne liked attacking players and always allowed their flourish and flow to remain intact.
Just after school Hemantha played in the Donovan Andree Shield for Bloomfield on K.M. Nelson’s invitation. Hemantha recalls that it was like a dream playing alongside Michael Tissera who was his schoolboy hero. Hemantha opened with Gihan Mendis the ex-Sussex county player who came near enough to play for England, (the author was fortunate enough to watch Gihan Mendis playing for a world eleven in Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica, in 1981, although Mendis did not shine that much. For the Windies, Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge had a glorious partnership of over a hundred). Hemantha states that he learnt a lot by playing alongside Gihan Mendis, taking singles and rotating the strike .they had more than six century partnerships.
In a couple of years he noted that he got matured playing with the seniors such as Vernon Caldera and K.M. Nelson. He got selected to play in the Gopalan trophy match under Anura Ranasinghe in 1975, who mentioned to Hemantha that he had fantastic talent and for him to work hard so that he could earn a Sri Lankan cap one day. He played for Sri Lanka, and scored 95 the following were his contemporaries Anura Tennekoon, Sidath Wettimuny, Madugalle, Ravi Ratnayake, Asantha de Mel, Rohan Jayasekera, Gajaba Pitigala and for India Madan Lal, Srikkanth, Shekar from the Indian side had a good tour.
After that Indian tour they went to England where they got Test status. Bandula Warnapura captained that team which included Lalith K, Ajith deSilva, Hemantha scored a lot of runs including fifties against Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. He also had a good partnership with Sidath. Asantha de Mel came for high praise from Hemantha. He was the best bowler of the team who could move the ball off the seam both ways. After his retirement from cricket Hemantha coached the Sri Lanka “A” team from 1998-2004. Mahela played under him for one year, Kumar, Rangana, Dilshan all played under Hemantha.
Hemantha points out that in comparison with Sanga and Mahela, Sanga was never an organised person, Sanga’s room was untidy but Mahela’s was better organised, however when Sanga went to bat he was utterly focussed. When the Zimbabweans toured Sri Lanka, Sanga was playing for Sri Lanka ‘A’ Dave Whatmore the then Sri Lanka coach came down to see Sanga scoring a magnificent 170. Hemantha recalls that Dave watched every ball of that innings from Sanga and he sailed into the Sri Lanka team and never looked back.
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